Nothing Much New Here

So I have been after Chris to update the blog for a little while now, and surprise surprise, he has not done it. I have also reminded him that this was his idea and that he agreed when he came up with the idea of a blog that it would be his sole responsibility to keep it updated in a timely fashion. And yet, here I am, typing this while two 15 month olds trash my already trashed office - oh yeah, and they're screaming while they are trashing it. I'm sure many of you out there have experienced this very same thing.....both the screaming kids and the stubborn husband -ha ha. Anyways, enough about that. We are all well here. Kiddos are mastering the act of running without falling down too much. They are both getting lots more teeth too. Chris is making good progress on the basement. And I am maintaining my status as ring leader of the whole bunch and I'm doing it without the need for medication - which I think is impressive considering I'm dealing with two very active 15 month olds.....oh yeah, and as fore mentioned, a very stubborn husband. The kiddos are working themselves into a screaming frenzy now, so I'll just attach some pictures for your enjoyment and sign off. Hopefully the next blog I can get Chris to participate......

My What Big Teeth You Have

Mia got her first big ole chomper tooth over the weekend. It has almost completely come in. We have been calling it the surprise tooth because we didnt even know it was there. I was brushing her teeth on saturday night and saw a flash of something. I just thought she was chewing on a sock or a piece of paper she picked up off the floor and went to get it out of her mouth. To my surprise, it was a molar. Diane said earlier in the day that most kids dont start getting their molars until around 18 months. So now she is up to 7 teeth total. I figured with the big teeth coming in they would be extremely fussy. We didnt even notice any difference in her behavior. Now when she gives her angry face, it really means something.

One of Mias favorite things to do is crawl or walk around with something on her head playing peekaboo. It doesnt matter if anyone is playing with her. They dont even have to be in the same room. I think she is hiding from Wes so he doesnt tackle her, but Diane insists that is peekaboo. We have a little rocking chair in the living room she really likes to sit in. She climbs up into it and sits there with a big ole grin on her face like she is queen. It is funny watching her try and rock it. She has been trying to talk a lot more and shows a lot of interest in learning new things. She tries to say dog (gaaww), nose (naa), poopy (puppy). If we ask her where her nose is, she will point next to it and say naa. If she happens to be on your lap, she will point to your nose and say naa. She is walking like a champ now and is incredibly cute with the little tiny steps she takes. Last time she was weighed, she was up to 18 pounds. At this rate, she will be 18 months old before her carseat can be turned around.

Wes is turning into a true terror. He thinks he is a football player and really enjoys tackling Mia. He will tackle her and then hold her head down and laughing about it while on top of her. He has 6 teeth completely in and two more coming out right now. No big ole compers like Mia though. Walking is old news for him now, his next challenge it trying to run. He isnt very good at it, but keeps on trying. Doesnt seem interested in learning words like Mia does. He seems to lag behind her in that area. He weighs about 23 pounds. His favorite thing to do it put things into other things and making noise. He will take one of his toys and put into a toy pot and carry it around and then bang it on the table. If it makes noise, he is all about it. The days in the jumperoo are done for him. He outgrew it, such a shame for him to lose his favorite thing to do. If you havent seen him in the jumperoo, you havent seen a kid having fun.

I've been spending most weekends working on the basement. I will spend about 5 or 6 hours each day over the weekend down there. So far I have all the walls up except for 1. The one I havent finished yet just happens to be one I tore down earlier. It was alongside the stairs and wanted to open up the entry. I have to replace the portion from the floor to just above the stairs so you can see most of the basement coming down the stairs. Talked Diane into taking the kids over to some friends one day a couple weekends ago so I could shut off the water to the house and move the main shutoff to the house, pressure regulator, expansion tank on the water heater and sprinkler system shutoff. It worked out perfectly, I was just about to turn the water back on when she walked in the door. I am so glad I wasnt given my Dad's or brother David's plumbing skills. They spent over a day replacing a water heater at my sisters house once. Something that should have taken 4 hours on a real bad day. Moving 12 foot wall panels was a lot of fun to do by yourself. I was pretty lucky and only lost control of two of them while moving them and only had one of the two hit me in the head. Diane asked if the wall was ok afterwards. I've done a little bit of electric and some other minor plumbing so far. Spent a small fortune on cabinets for the bar, vanity and faucets for everything. It seems I am back into spending $200 everytime I go to the hardware store and I havent even bought the tub, countertops or tile yet. Wont be too much longer until I will be hanging drywall....at least I hope. My boss said something a week ago about having to start working lots of overtime, so you just never know.

Wes and Mia playing (wes has things in his cup)

Just a couple of posers

Wes in Diane's friend Suzanne's, christmas outfit

Mia in Diane's friend Suzanne's, christmas outfit

For Jameson

While we normally update the blog with info about the kids, this blog is in loving memory of our dog Jameson. Jameson took ill on Thursday and after watching him for 2 days and waiting for him to get over whatever had him down, Chris took him to see the vet Saturday afternoon because he was getting worse. After some blood work and an examination it was determined that his pancreas was not working properly. We suspect that on one of his many sock benders, that one of those baby socks got stuck in his intestines somewhere. The doctors suspected that the infection had gone systemic and that he would need days of IV therapy and surgery.....needless to say the cost for these treatments was through the roof, and we had to make the tough decision to put him to sleep last night. He was very sick and obviously in a lot of pain. Jameson buddy, I hope you feel better now and that you can eat all of the socks you want. You will be missed.

More Christmas Pictures

Christmas Pictures

Merry Christmas from all the Tepen's

I guess it was time to update the blog. There has been lots of requests, begging, pleading and even the occasional threat. I ignored them all. Having to listen to Diane complain about me having to do it made me decide that it was time. She offered to help and said she would tell me what to type. I said if you are going to tell me what to type, why dont you just update it. Her answer, 'You are funnier than me at writing the blog.' Dont quite understand the answer, but thought I would make her happy and write a little something. After all, lots has happened since the last update.

Everyone has been asking, are they walking yet.....I bet I get that question at least once a day. And finally the answer is yes and no, or is that a maybe, possibly, could be, or only if the house is on fire . Actually I'm not telling. If you want to know, come visit us.

We had a birthday/Turkey Day party back in November. Wesley and Mia turned one year old. Time has just flown by in the past year and cant believe we made it this far....only 17 more years til Diane kicks them out of the house. They ate turkey with all the fixin's, except oyster stuffing. I was refused on my request for oyster stuffing. Hopefully I will be able to get some with the Christmas ham next week. Diane made each of them mini pumpkin pies for their birthday dessert with whip cream on top. They both loved it and asked for a bigger one next time.

Two weeks later, we had my bridge group Christmas party here at the house. We ended up with around 20 people enjoying the evening. This year we decided to donate gifts to Toys for Tots instead of buying white elephant gifts for everyone. We still did the white elephant gift exchange, except you had to come up with something from around the house. The presents ranged from a bag full of used books, a bunch of kids christmas socks, a foot massager and we made a t-shirt that said 'I went to a christmas party and all I got was this stupid shirt'.

The kids are doing great. Had a little event with our daycare a week ago on Tuesday. We had gotten six inches of snow the night before. Which actually has nothing to do with the story. But, I was able to break out the snowblower for the first time this year. It started on the first pull after I put gas in it. Where was I, went on a little gondira-tangent there, oh yeah, daycare incident. Pulled into the parking lot and loaded the kids up for the treck to the front door. Always fun trying to get two kids that cant walk into a building with one person while trying to carry a bag of bottles and sometimes another bag with sheets, blankets and other times I even have a third bag with diapers and wipes. Then I have to open the first door, type in a code, use the finger print scanner, give a blood sample and eye scan before the second door will allow me to open it. Dang it, another tangent, need to quit hanging out with her so much. But this day, there was a letter posted on the first door. So, I stood in the snow and read the letter. It was a long letter and by time I was finished reading it, I was completely white. It is never a good sign when the first sentence of a letter starts out, 'It is with a sad heart that I have to close the daycare center', or something along those lines. Then later on in the letter they let us know that the last day is on Friday....yup, three days to find a new daycare for two 1 year olds. I drop the kids off, and head into work. Did I mention there was 6" of snow, so it took me 45 minutes to get to the interstate, which normally only takes a little over 5 minutes. I gave up and turned around and went back home which thankfully only took 15 more minutes. I called Diane on the way back. We decided to go look for a new daycare that day. Diane met me at a daycare around 11:30. We looked at 3 of them. Surprisingly, all three of them had openings. I was wondering why when one of them said that a lot of people were taking their kids out of daycare to save money or because one of the parents got laid off. Guess that is a big reason our daycare shut down. They started this past Monday and seem to like it a lot. It is nicer than our old one, but also $200 more every four weeks.

Both Wes and Mia love the Christmas tree. They like to grab the decorations on it and yank them off. So far, they have only broken one, but we have lost the hook for a couple more of them. Mia's favorite is a pair of knit red mittens. Wes used to like a cluster of little red balls but has moved on to a red bell. They had pretty much ignored the presents under it until today. Diane put my presents under there, so I must have been good all year to get presents, and Mia has been infatuated with taking it out from under the tree and try to unwrap it. They both now know the word no, but like most kids and some adults, they care to ignore it whenever it is directed at them.

Mia has developed a scary face. She puckers her lips out, squints her eyes and breathes heavily out her nose and mouth at the same time. It is simply adorable, too bad she didnt have that in her arsenal for Halloween. She could have been a really scary pumpkin. Mia also likes to play open the closet door of her room in the mornings. Then she will turn her head back and smile while she waits for me to close it so she can open it back up.

Both kids are eating pretty much on their own now. We put the food on the table of their highchair and they grab it and put it in thier mouths. It is a messy endevour, but definately progress. They are also using sippy cups and will sit there on the floor and drink it. Guess the next step is figuring out how to get them to use a spoon.

mmmm....smells like sloppy joes...guess what we are having for dinner this evening? Winner gets a dog biscuit. Wes is walking about 30% of the time and improving every hour. He can walk from the front door all the way through the living room and to the kitchen. Mia is where Wes was about a week ago. She can do it, but it is random and only about 5 or 6 steps max.

We hope everyone, especially Mr McLovin' Snyder and his gun show, has a happy and wonderful holiday season. We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Colorado Tepens out.

Binky Quest

Wes is totally infatuated with his binky. We have be trying to break him of needing it all the time. Fortunately, we have been winning this war, but only because he is short and cant reach it up on the countertop. If he could figure out a way to get up to the counter, we would be done for. Just about every morning when he gets up and is on the floor waiting for his bottle to warm up, he wanders around the room looking for it. He peeks under the crib, the rocking chair and underneath the two pillows on the floor. It is really cute to see him peeking under the crib with his butt in the air. He is sure to check under each of the cribs too,not just his own because he found one under Mia's crib once. He only gets it these days when he gets really fussy and Diane breaks down and figures it is the binky or her sanity. I keep telling her that she lost her sanity a long time ago, but she just snarls and calls me a nasty name.

I have mentioned our sock problem with one of the dogs, Jameson, previously. Have you ever wondered how many socks can a dog eat and still not kill himself? We found out the answer the other day. A few evenings ago I saw him running into our bedroom with Guinness hot on his tail. I thought, what the heck are they up to. So, I called him out of the bedroom and he came, looked at me and headed for the stairs. I yelled no as he was about halfway down and surprisingly he actually stopped and came back up to me. I had him sit and just barely noticed the corner of something sticking out of his mouth. All the while he was growling while I was trying to open his mouth and steal the pair of socks away from him. I was able to get the socks away and asked Diane where he got them from. She said she didnt know, but did do baby laundry earlier in the day and had everything sitting on the bed. I went to the spare bedroom and said, there werent any socks in here....she said, there should be several pair. The next morning we heard a dog puking in the bedroom and went out to check out or new surprise. There were six socks in a pile that he puked up. I was out cleaning up after the dogs in the backyard a couple of days later and found two more socks. So now we know that Jameson can eat 8 socks, still be hungry for more socks and still survive. I wonder if there is a world record for this!!!

miss bossy just showed up. .....surprise surprise....wielding a glass of wine in hand and an attitude to go along with it. She quickly quieted down.....wine must be taking effect or she fell asleep on the couch.....Allies snoring must have hypnotized her....

Allie was diagnosed with severe heart degeneration. The muscles of the heart walls have deteriorated and cant pump like they are supposed to. She was pumping at about 20% of normal capacity. This was causing fluid build up in her lungs and causing the bad cough. The vet gave her 3 months with a possibility of 6. She is on several prescriptions to help her through it all. She stopped the coughing, but is always tired and sleeps alot.

Wes and Mia still arent walking yet. Both of them will occasionally let go of what they are holding onto while standing and stand there all proud of themselves. Each of them have a car with an elevated handle where they can walk behind it. Mia just figured out today what to do and had a great time with it. Wes will do it if you set him behind it and walk with him. They are both getting more teeth to go with the four they already have. Wes likes to drop stuff and go uh-oh. Mia learned how to high five. One of these days Wes will learn what his inside voice is, I keep telling him to use it, but he just screams 'Da Da, Da Da'.

We took some pictures on Halloween. They were pumpkins. They didnt go trick or treating because their bedtime is too early and they would have a hard time walking to the houses. Plus, they dont know how to say 'Trick or Treat'. Diane wanted to take them, because she wanted to eat their candy, but I figured it would be better to have well rested babies than grumpy ones. Their first birthday is coming up on Turkey Day.

I started on the basement this weekend. If anyone feels the need to help, just let me know. I wont turn it down unless I'm not going to be working on it. Which brings me to a question about plumbing. Has a plumber ever roughed in a basement bathroom correctly? This is the third house I have owned and not a single one was done where you didnt have to rip it all out and redo it. Our neighbors across the street paid extra for a bathroom rough in and they didnt even put in a toilet pipe. They told them that the toilet doesnt come with it. I just went, huh!!! Stupid plumbers.......



Bring it on and Well put you in the ground right next to these two here.....











A couple of pumpkins ate our babies !!!












The Great Pumpkin Wesley

I ain't fraid of no ghosts!!!